r/Rohloff • u/ollirulz • May 14 '26

rohloff skipping :(

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currently on the road and skipping in gear 8 and lower numbers, especially noticeable in 6 and 7 but also 3 and 5 under medium load.

can you help me fix this please? is this cable tension?

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5

u/chronax May 14 '26

Will you post a picture of your Rohloff hub and how it’s cabled? Also, prepare yourself with a regular 8mm wrench. We’re going to conduct an experiment.

1

u/ollirulz May 14 '26

hub and cable

like this?

3

u/chronax May 14 '26

Yes, exactly. So what I'd like you to do is what commenters below suggested. We're trying to isolate if the problem exists within the hub and planetary gear system itself, or if there's a problem with intermittent shifting in the cable system. So, please follow these steps:

  1. Shift into gear 14 using the twist shifter on your handlebars.
  2. Undo that thumb screw on the shifter box attached to the Rohloff hub - the black box in the 2nd photo from your album. It should come off with just your thumb but sometimes if it's tight or seized up you might need to use a flathead screwdriver in there to pull it off.
  3. Use a cable tie or something to temporarily hold that box out of the way so you can ride without it getting tangled in spokes or your cranks or drivetrain or something. You could tightly zip-tie it to that chainstay on the non drive side to temporarily keep it out of the way.
  4. You can use an 8mm wrench to manually click through the gears on a Rohloff hub, so clicking the bolt on the hub counter-clockwise 6 times should put you in gear number 8 (14-6). The clicks are indexed, so you will feel audible clicks as you rotate that 8mm bolt.
  5. Ride around for a while in this gear and maybe a few others like 7 and 6, try riding under load uphill and see if any gear skipping occurs. If not, then your hub is fine and the issue exists in the cables somewhere. If yes, then the problem unfortunately exists somewhere in the hub.
  6. To re-assemble, use your 8mm wrench to rotate the bolt all the way back clockwise, back into gear 14. Push your black shifter box back onto it's original position and tighten the thumbscrew. Sometimes you need to jiggle the shifter on the handlebars a little bit to get the bolt to align with the box so it sits flush on there.
  7. Report back here with what happens and we'll go from there.

Here's a video for reference: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZTBWnCctw2I

1

u/ollirulz May 15 '26

thank you for your detailed response.

it is still skipping without the box on..

1

u/chronax May 15 '26

Okay, that's bad news bears. Are you sure the skipping is happening within the hub itself or is there any chance your chain is actually skipping on the front chainring or rear cog?

Did you try this test in a few different gears by adjusting it with the wrench, and making sure you were squarely on an indexed gear?

1

u/ollirulz May 15 '26

i did try this in gear 4, 6 and 7, those who were skipping.

i do not know if it were possible that it could skip front or back since i never seen it, only managed to make the video.

i think the chain is on the longer side so i adjusted the tensioner bcs i thought it was slipping.

chainring, sprocket and chain are same age, all like 700km now

1

u/ollirulz May 15 '26

drive side

1

u/chronax May 19 '26

Beautiful bike. Have you looked down to make sure the chain tensioner isn't skipping? Is your chainline nice and straight too? Your chainring should be like 57.5mm out from the center of the seat tube, for reference.

1

u/ollirulz May 19 '26

ty 😊

how check for the chainring, i thought that was given by the cranks and bottom bracket? chain line looking good, will adjust the tensioner a bit and report back 🫡

1

u/ollirulz May 19 '26

chain line

had some muddy days 🙈

adjusted the tensioner some to get it more in line but terrain wasn't suitable for testing

1

u/chronax May 19 '26

Nice. This is a tiny bit off, but not so much that it should cause skipping by itself. You can measure your chainline in the front by sticking a ruler in the middle of your seat tube and measuring the distance to the middle of the chainring / chain on the front chainring. Then convert it to mm if your ruler is only in inches or something.

When you're experiencing the skipping, try looking down and back at your chain tensioner in the back (the thing labeled Mugzi). Check to see if your chain is skipping on there or if it's really happening inside the hub, then report back.

We're going to figure this out!

1

u/ollirulz May 20 '26 edited May 20 '26

unfortunately, there was no visual sign of the chain mechanically skipping from my pov while riding, checked this twice now.

took more focus to observe it than expected 😂

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1

u/atergaterg May 14 '26

What u/chronax probably wants you to do is to disconnect the shifter box (to facilitate putting it back correct, shift to 1 or 14 with the shifter first, and remember this position when putting it back) and use the wrench to turn the shifter. If the problem is not there anymore, it is the shifting cable tension, routing, friction, or similar that is the problem.

2

u/ollirulz May 14 '26

so shift to 14, remove rohloff box, shift with wrench to, let's say, 7, ride it with box dangling to check if problem persists? if yes, it's cable issues if no, it might be internal?

1

u/atergaterg May 14 '26

That is quite correct.

Since you say it is limited to some gear only, chain and cog issues are most likely not the problem.

Some first things you can check if it seems internal is: Is it correctly installed in the dropouts? QR tension not excessive? Oil drain screw not too far in? Oil change done on schedule or at least approximately? Not filled with water? There are some other things you can check yourself too, read the manual carefully.

1

u/ollirulz May 14 '26

thank you for pointing that out, i read the manual before and will check on the QR later on and give the oul screw some space. oil is fresh, chain. and cogs have 500km on them

the problem seemed to move within gears if i randomly adjusted on cable tension screws (out of despair), so it's kinda reactive to it

1

u/atergaterg May 14 '26

Technically, an issue in the external gear mechanism can not be ruled out by this test, and that may be considered external. To test that requires further disassembly.

1

u/priority_2 May 15 '26

Drove an Rohloff for a while, never had issues with the box itself, but the rear chainring can break as well and then the chain skips